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58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspector Salvo Montalbano vs. Commissario Guido Brunetti, May 16, 2005
As someone who only reads a few mystery novels a year, I was overwhelmed to discover both Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon at about the same time. Camilleri's Inspector Salvo Montalbano stories and Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti novels are so good that I wanted to read them all and was delighted to find that both authors have written at least a dozen books each. Only five or six of Camilleri's have been translated into English from the original Italian so far, but more are on the way. And many of Leon's are out of print in the U.S., but perhaps that will change in the near future. These are compelling mysteries that draw you right in and keep you hooked right up to the satisfying, if not always happy, conclusions. But that almost goes without saying. What keeps you coming back for more are the characters and the extras, in this case, the backdrops of Sicily and Venice. Stephen Sartarelli's translations of the Camilleri books are marvelous. It isn't hard to translate a book, but it is difficult to do well. He strikes the perfect balance of translating most things, but turning to explanation when translating would destroy the mood. There are a few pages of explanations at the end of each book, describing pastas and exchange rates and cultural references. For instance, he translates education-impaired cop Catarella's rough speech into something Brooklyn-esque, but he explains Boghonghi the Dwarf, apparently a famous character to most Italians, but not to Americans. (Example of a bad translation -- I remember seeing a dubbed version of the French movie A Man and a Woman that completely destroyed the romantic mood when they replaced the Edith Piaf song playing on the car radio in the original version with a dubbed ragtime tune.) I can't say which series is better, I tend to think that whichever I am reading at the moment is my favorite.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 'hard boiled' detective is softer in Italy --and better, March 4, 2006
I love mysteries, but not thrillers, and had moved nearly my entire bookshelf to Britain and its writers, but I thought I had exhausted Amazon's list. On a whim, I tried Inspector Montalbano. He is alternately rude and kind to his squad. He approaches cases indirectly, with intuition more than reasoning (he IS Italian, after all). He is a faithful but unreliable lover. He eats well and has enormous sympathy for villans and their victims. Frankly, I get so wrapped up in his world I lose track of the plot, but it doesn't matter. Another reviewer quibbled about the translation details but that doesn't bother me either. This is an engaging, complex lead character, with some lovely supporting actors-- a great buffoonish cop, a steady and sober right hand man who doesn't deserve the grief Montalbano heaps on and a busy (fictional) small city that lives with priests and mafioso with equal acceptance. Very enjoyable, very readable with mood and sometimes writing like crystal. Unlike Donna Leon's Venician detective (who is wonderful but like reading an Italian "cozy"), Camilleri is harder edged and sharper eyed. A real pleasure.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Crime is Secondary, January 19, 2006
I came upon Inspector Montalbano when I ran out of Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti mysteries. Recklessly, I ordered two Montalbano books at once, author unfamiliar, and read the first one, The Shape of Water. Frankly, I didn't think much of the story and was put off by the crudeness of the language. If I hadn't also bought the second one, Excursion to Tindari, I would have been deprived of a delightful excursion into Sicilian life and the charming (sometimes) Salvo Montalbano. This book is more expansive, doesn't deal exclusively with sex as did the first book, and leisurely introduces us to Montalbano's characteristics: gourmet/gourmand; bad boy; antiauthoritarian; well-read intellectual; commitment phobic lover;intuitive; wit; humanist. His investigations are always unorthodox and often fun. He incessantly abuses the men in his squad who are all somewhat quirky, but they are extremely loyal to him. As someone in another review said, the resolution of the crime isn't the main point, it's the journey there that's the best part of his novels. I have since read The Terra Cotta Dog, The Snack Thief and am almost through with the last one, The Smell of the Night, which I am savoring. I do appreciate the translator's glossary at the back of the book. It helps retain the original flavor of the language while at the same time enlightening the non-Italian reader. (I wish Donna Leon would do this.) I found a website that lists five more untranslated books. I sure hope Mr. Santarelli is busy working on them.
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